Victory Ten Years Alt

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Bottle: Poured a deep hazy brown color alt with a large foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of deep caramel malt is very nice with some subtle toffee notes also noticeable. Taste is very refreshing with some rich caramel malt notes and some balance sweetness. Hops are very hard to distinguish which is a good thing since the malt bill is generous enough and need no complement. Full body with good carbonation and no apparent alcohol. Interesting take on the style and easily drinkable.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

A dark reddish brown colour that was reminiscent of iced tea. The aroma was very hoppy, with a heft dose of citrusy tones. The flavour was very smooth, no noticeable alcohol flavour among the malty tones and hoppishness. A nice beer.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 3 | Overall: 4

Just plain old beery aroma, nothing offensive and no hint of the hop flavorburst within. Looks like rootbeer in my sniffer. Probably one of the strongest alt beers I’ve ever tasted at 8.5%. IMHO, taste is way too hoppy for an alt. Almost comes across like an IPA! IPA lovers better check this stuff out. Leaves a bitter lingering finish, like any other IPA, in your mouth. Way too many IPA characters for this pale lager lover. Generally, I really like alts but this stuff is over the top in hops. For the style, cannot hold a candle to other alts like Schell Schmaltzs Alt, Erie Brewing Heritage Alt, Southampton Secret Ale, Penn Alt er Ego or even John Harvard’s Alt Bier. Finish is hop mouth coating soapy chewing on grapefruit rinds terrible lingering bitter. Go figure, should be styled as an IPA. Probably on par with Otter Creek Copper Ale.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Sampled March 2006
Pours a brilliantly clear, deep, dark, reddish color that shows ruby notes when held up the light. The head is initially one-finger thick, through it quickly disappears and is a light tan color. The aroma is fruity with a bit of sweet candied cherry note to it. There is also a light herbal and spice type note here as well as a light toasted malt note, which combines with a sweet caramel malt note.

The beer is full and coating up front, yet is not as sweet as I would expect from a beer of this heft. An immediate, herbal, almost raw hop note is noticeable up front and continues on into a mouth gripping, solid bitterness. I was expecting this to have an aggressive hop character like the best Alts I have had, which it does, but I was hoping for that intense, smooth fruitiness as well, which is not in this beer. The hops, especially the herbal notes, seem to combine with some alcohols and perhaps some fusels to give this a bit of a harsh note towards the end. This is pretty tasty, I just wish it were a bit less herbal and aggressive and a bit more balanced. I have a feeling though, that this will mellow and become a much more rounded and balanced mix of flavors once it gets a couple months more of age. Or perhaps it is just that I am haunted by the wonderful memories of tasting fresh Ale in Düsseldorf.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Pours a really nice looking mahogany, with a one finger head that fades to a thin swirling cap and ring, leaving behind a decent lacing. Smell; slightly nutty, with almonds and bits of walnuts. There's a subtle vanilla with a little bit of chocolate, and some really nice earthy notes. Taste; lots of caramel malts upfront in this one, with slitghly bitter nuts, and some raisins and figs. The chocolate and vanilla are there but not to strong, with some floral German hops in there, and just a touch on the bitter side. Mouthfeel is medium bodied and a little bit drying, with a pretty good drinkability. Wish I had picked up a sixer of this instead of just the one bottle. As has been stated by others, you gotta love the fact that Victory brewed an Alt for their Tenth, a style that's not really all that common.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Pours with a cloudy amber-brown body topped by a medium thick head with lots of lacing. It’s sweet and malty to start with a very slight roasty note, turning bitter and hoppy in the finish. Medium bodied, tingly on the tongue and a touch of dryness.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

thanks to pineypower for the bottle. It pours dark brown with some red highlights and a one finger off white head. Nice aroma that reminds you of honey or molasses. It's medium bodied w/ a slightly malty flavor. Nice easy drinking beer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Victory Ten Years Alt was an interesting Alt beer. It poured an almost brown colored body with an off white head. The aroma was pleasant with notes of spices, and malts. The taste was malty but with a notable smoky finish. This isn't a bad alt but I didn't enjoy the smoky finish in my alt.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

This is one of those type of beers that you know you sampled and enjoyed at a Fest, but later on blank-out on, until you see again a few months or years later. In this case, I know I both sampled and quite enjoyed this beer while volunteering at the 2006 Extreme Beer Festival in Boston MA -- the Victory booth was just across the way from the VIP Booth I was pouring at, so it was a no-brainer -- but then kinda forgot all about it until now: sipping a glassful from a bottle purchased while on a business trip to the Laurel MD area.

And you know what? This is damn tasty -- and a damn shame that it slipped my mind until now...!

Maybe this is the first Doppelsticke brewed in the US, or maybe not -- I'm not familar enough with the style (sub-style?) to have much of an input on that question.

But I do know that this mighty tasty, and quite a big n' burley Ale Bier, for sure. A ton of back-end German hops in the front of the boil, and not really anywhere else, giving the rock-hard malt bill plenty of room to breathe.

Nicely filling in the mouthfeel -- while, at the same time, cleverly hiding the fact that this is actually in the 8.5%ABV neighborhood. A welcome amount of skillful subtlety, that....

Finishes a little sweet -- the malt freight-train finally catching up, and delivering it's malty load, as it were -- but still a nice, quite interesting beer. Recommended.

Music: Red Sparowes' "At The Soundless Dawn"
//TB

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Sampled from bottle. This alt pours cloudy bronze with a creamy, light-tan head and nice lacing. Aroma is toasted malts with subtle notes of dark fruit. Bready, carmelized malts with apples and plums. Flavor lingers. Full-bodied and smooth. A bit under attenuated and a bit too fruity. Quite good.